I've also pondered these similar issues over the last few weeks having only joined the platform recently. Most of my post's upvote weight comes from centerlink/teamaustralia and I maybe have 5-10 organic followers that give me 0-1c upvotes whenever they can be bothered.
I don't really find this to be an issue though, most successful youtubers spent YEARS building up a following then it looked as if they were successful overnight. I think the same ethos applies here.
I'm not sure what the final solution will be for steemit or its upcoming competitors but I keep coming back to the notion of community.
Ultimately I'd like there to be enough painters, writers, fitness buffs and traders on the platform that they can all support each others content within each specific niche.
Team Australia is a starting point but as our numbers increase I'd like to think we could branch off eventually, for this to work we need a lower drop-out rate and more signups!
I agree with this to an extent. But on most other platforms the time you start doesn't effect your overall success, unless you were lucky enough to be one of the very first.
On Steemit however, the difficulty increases daily. So it might be worth your time to join today and grind away to build a profile, but maybe not in 6 months from now. It gets to point where it gets self defeating.
Agreed!
... the old "overnight success story" 15 years in the making